


A Good Story

by queen_scribbles



Series: Astrid Hawke Canon [10]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Implied Character Death, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition Quest - Here Lies the Abyss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 21:09:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18432152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: Varric is being haunted by the last thing he ever expected





	A Good Story

Varric Tethras was being haunted.

Not by ghosts(though he had experience there), or spirits(though he was friends with one now), or demons(they didn’t have much use for a dwarf). And not even by his bad decisions, even though there were plenty to choose from.

No, it was more poetic than that; he was being haunted by his own damn words. They floated out of the past, nearly a decade old, to mock him as he sat at his desk.

_“It’s not a good story unless the hero dies.”_

He hadn’t meant for _this_ story. Maker as his witness, this wouldn’t be the end if he was the one writing it. She deserved better.

No, if Varric were the one writing this story, it would have been a close call, maybe left a moment of doubt to get the readers’ blood really pumping. But Hawke would have come tumbling out of the rift, beaten the Inquisitor sealing it by the skin of her teeth, covered in demon ichor but grinning in triumphant relief. They would be nursing drinks in the tavern while he promised to steal one of Nightingale’s ravens--Hawke was worth the risk--so he could let Choir Boy know she was on her way home as fast as possible. Hawke would protest, he would insist, and she would cave with a laugh.

But he wasn’t the one writing it, and that last second escape, Hawke’s infamous lucky streak, hadn’t come through.

_“It’s not a good story unless the hero dies.”_

The joke was on him, apparently. The hero had died and this felt like a really shitty story as a result. He was nursing a drink alone, in his room, ink dripping splotches on the page as he tried to figure out what to write. How to start.

He was the one who knew Hawke’s “associates”; this would have fallen to him even if he hadn’t volunteered. He would still be the one writing these letters, breaking this news. To the ones he could find, at least. Being committed to the Inquisition had crimped his connections, just enough to be an annoyance.

But he knew where the most important ones were, so he could start there.

_“It’s not a good story unless the hero dies.”_

Varric pinched the bridge of his nose and set quill to parchment, starting on the one story he’d never wanted to tell.

_Choir Boy-_

_I have something to tell you that you should probably sit down to read...._

**Author's Note:**

> I just happened to get the referenced Varric and Anders banter during the short while I had both of them in party for a recent DA2 playthrough, and of course the first thought to jump in my head was how hard that line would bite him in the ass in my canon, since Hawke stays in the Fade to fight the Nightmare.


End file.
